Obviously the content free conventions and TV commercials in this presidential campaign season are frustrating for reasonable people. Thank God we have good comedians. Jon Stewart's coverage of the conventions may save America from itself.The Republican campaign has soared to new and dizzying heights of anti-intellectualism and disingenuousness. They have been willing to make fools of themselves in front of reasonable Americans because they know that they already have the votes of half of them and have no shot at the other half's votes. This allowed them (or so they thought) to concentrate on the least informed, least knowledgeable voters in the mushy middle. The over the top inconsistencies and exaggerations of the Republicans (especially after the Sarah Palin pick) have not been effectively exposed by the news media because the Republican talking heads have ready made attack and distortion tactics to deploy on the news media.
If journalists report Republican exaggerations, distortions, flat untruths, the RNC immediately deploys the "talking points" instructing every Republican on earth (it seems) to attack the media in exactly the same way at every opportunity. In addition to attacking media credibility, they calculate that their simple denials and flat claims will get through to their target audience while the critical explanations and exposure of their tactics will either go over the heads of their target audience, or be seen as sour grapes.
Though I think these very sophisticated and acutely targeted tactics reveal an impressive propaganda machine at work, I think that this is the year that relevant facts will overwhelm the irrelevant facts that Republicans are relying on here. And, I think that the inability of Republicans (or Democrats) to discredit comedians the way they do journalists will be crucial to the reduction of blatantly anti-intellectual political campaigning.
Click HERE to watch Jon Stewart deploying comedy as a deadly intellectual weapon.